method9455

Lets put it in perspective, I've never seen another mountain in the country that had daily hours that where shorter than the rest of the mountain. Maybe closed a day here or a day there to work on it, but to have open 2 hours less than the rest of the mountain is very unusual. Honestly does it matter? Not really. In the morning get a few runs on nicely groomed trails in to warm up and loosen up before you get to the park. At the end of the night it is icy anyway - so for all the bitching it doesn't actually make a difference at all. But Camelback is the only mountain I know that does it.

Eh in terms of lost money - if they give out 1 free ticket that generates a hell of a lot of free PR and good will, and honestly 1 midweek ticket doesn't count for much the bills are the same with or without that 1 person there to Bear Creek, and even if 1/2 of the tickets go to people that would have bought tickets, a lot of people who would not have bought tickets ever will come see Bear Creek. A midweek day will give them a good impression of the mountain and they'll come back another time to buy a ticket and beyond. An extra hour in the morning would cost money, and discount food they probably wont lose much money. If anything they will sell a higher volume at a lower profit, which will equal or increase the money they make now. I think considering they will never have the longest season but they charge similar prices they should have the best deal to make up for it.

backflips freak me out man (on a snowboard) i've choked on it 3 times out of the 3 times I've tried. I get to the completely upside down part, freak out, and just come crashing straight down on my head. Usually I kind of suck up and land on my shoulder blades but it sucks. Usually end up kneeing yourself in the nose and a lot of blood goes everywhere, not to scare you dude but I have a strict no-invert policy from now no for myself. I wouldn't want to try it at a resort with hardpack, wait till spring for the slush or into powder and there is less chance of hurting yourself.

Right now the beneifits of my season pass at Mountain Creek are cheaper food (key), an hour earlier on weekends (not sure how the crowds are at BC but that is crucial at MC, the best runs are from 8-11 and the mountain opens for everyone else at 9), a Transworld Snowboarding subscription (don't really care), and discounts at other mountains owned by Intrawest (not possible for Bear). I could see food discounts and 1 free midweek lift ticket for a friend as a great incentive to get people to come back next year. The ticket would be the equivalent of the cross mountain discounts - which add up. I saved over $100 on the cross mountain discounts last season at Tremblant and Stratton - which was actually more than I paid for the season pass.

Well depends on how you look at the whole thing. There are people who snowboard and there are snowboarders. You'll find a lot more people who snowboard than snowboarders now thats its "cool" and shit. I'd place myself in the same realm as those who would hike a mountain for 1 run down where no one else has been. Before I could drive I would spend 2 or 3 days pushing snow around in my yard after we got a few inches to build a jump so I could ride everyday after school. I'm out for opening day and out for closing (sometimes beyond). Does that mean you should? Probably not. But there are certainly some people that would.

Food discounts are a big one. At Mountain Creek it was 25% which is a lot. It makes the food turn from insanely priced to reasonable. I didn't mind eating the cafe food when I have a season pass discount - but without it I never would. Now we eat there if it isn't crowded but on weekends we can't get a table so we leave at like 2 and get something from a fast food place on the way home. I think if you had a season pass discount on food (even if you made none/very little on food that way) you would do a much higher volume of food because season pass holders generally won't buy your cafe food. Obviously they planned out their season enough to save money by buying ahead - they're not going to be paying for overpriced food when they know the area enough to find somewhere to eat on the way in or out. As for parking - eh I'm used to walking across Route 94 at MC, across the bridge at Shawnee, or up the hill in front of Camelback so I'm spoiled by Blue and JFBB's short walks. I think it should be first come first serve. If there was preferred parking it wouldn't change much - almost all the people there early are season pass holders anyway, so by afternoon the season pass holder lot would be full.

Yea thats hail/sleet. I think sleet is smaller like frozen sand, hail is like bigger bb size up to golfballs and such. Freezing rain is rain that freezes after it has already hit a surface. Generally sleet sticks and hail bounces too. Its a fuzzy line trying to seperate it all especially since you get overlaps. We had periods of freezing rain and sleet yesterday but not hail at UDel in my opinion.

Yea I tried going at it with an old school SLR with manual focus as a hobby, lots of fun but you can't compare to the dSLR stuff and no way I'm affording some of that gear.

Yea dude then don't go because your clearly not hardcore about it. Id hike for a 40 foot patch of snow with or without a feature no matter how large the crowd was just to get some snowboarding in.

Well the 2nd groomer is the anchor point, so no driver needed. You can't tell me they need 100% of the cats out on the mountain moving - considering the park is usually shaped during the day anyway.

The winch cat is used to build the jump, you park a cat above where the ramp will eventually go and then push snow up the landing to make it 32ish degrees. Then once the landing is shaped right, you push the snow for the ramp because you no longer need the winch groomer. Nightly grooming is possible on the landings without a winch cat - it just requires one to push the snow uphill something that steep. It can be done without a winch cat but it is easier and more controllable with one. It just has to be thought about ahead of time.

Because you can't expect a company to react to what their customers what Papa .... DUH. I agree on the 20 degrees versus 32 - ride up the lift at a real mountain and look at the landings, and ride up a lift at Camelback and look. You see it at Creek on the first hit on Indian every year, a perfect 32 degree landing for 100 - 150 foot vert no exaggeration. They took a headwall, groomed it up to a consistent pitch, and put a jump 20-30 feet before it. You can make that jump a 30 footer or a 60 if you throw it down the landing, and no matter how fast you go you will (almost never) clear the whole landing. Go to Camelback and the landings are 30 feet tops, and flat at that. You go up the lift and they look flat, then you hit them and they feel flat. Thats not safe.

Lead as in slow or snow stuck on top or what? Slush wax will make it just as fast as hardpack and I'd be suprised if you get much snow stuck on top of skis - but on a board wet snow can really pile up if the top isn't smooth (Burton Dominant/Ride Kink that means you!)

The way I see it a steep landing = safer. A flat landing = cheaper for the mountain. Some people say well with a steep landing you can overshoot/undershoot - bullshit they need to make the landing longer. That requires more snow which = more $$$, but if your park is going to be standardized over the years get out the bulldozer and start making the contour for jumps - look at Blue for a good example of that.

Is that the one in the promo video? It might be an optical illusion but it looks like he hits it at one point and almost nails a woman skiing by on top. As for the northstar setup it was in 2 MDP movies, I can't take screenshots otherwise I would. basically a cheese wedge style jump onto a rectangle of snow about a cat width, maybe 80 feet long, about 12 feet high at the start and 20 at the end, with a lip, and then a landing like a step down jump. Some people call them butter boxes and stuff but I think its more of a step up because, well you step up onto the box, then ride across it and its a big step down. The shot was someone comes in does a BS 180 and goes along and then like 720 off the end. I was doing 180 to 180 at the Shawnee mini setup and it felt so good except that the gap on was small enough that people were walking around the jump and kind of climbing onto the top to walk on it becuase few people knew how to actually hit it.

Tom I'm sure you know thats not the case. If I had to bet Papa dropped off his son at JFBB and then drove back to Camelback for the race program with his daughter and stayed there because I believe his daughter is younger. That sounds like being responsible versus being too lazy to drive the extra 15 minutes. As for the jumps 2 pictures for you in comparison to what is up there. This first is from Mammoth: (Daily photo last year) This one is from Mountain Creek: (Snowboard.com origin - don't know the rider/photo sorry guys) This one is from Bear Mountain (Daily photo last year) This one is from Whistler (Daily photo last year) If you notice 1) 3 out of the 4 are Daily Photos so it makes them nice to compare to the camelback daily photo 2) They are all small/medium sized tabletop jumps (except for the last one) which is what the one at Camelback is going for I think 3) All the riders shown are actually in proper form and are going to actually make the landing - unlike the Camelback one 4) All the landings are steep this is very evident on Mammoth picture. The optimal angle on a landing is something like 33 degrees, I was trying to find the ISSA guide to it but I couldn't find the document anymore, oh well. 5) All the ramps are curved/launch you on a higher trajectory than the one in the picture. Its hard for me to say having not hit the jump in question, but based on that picture either the ramp is too flat or the girl is going too slow, or both. So bottom line, a steeper landing and a steeper ramp. I have always though Camelback's jumps in the past have had a soft knuckle with a flat/short landing. That basically comes from trying to stretch a pile of snow too far and the trail isn't all that steep. So make the jump shorter, higher, steeper and longer landing, and you will end up with a jump with more pop and less distance. For reference the Mountain Creek jump in question is in the non-park pass beginner park - and it looks like it throws you a lot higher than the one in Rhodo. I hit that jump often and it is intimidating enough to beginners that it probably should be in the more advanced park. That picture is like 3 years ago - now they put 2 small ones in Exhibition rather than one big one. Either way I would call that a 20 foot table top jump. The Mammoth one looks like a 20-25 footer, and the bear one might be a 25-30 footer. The Whistler one is much bigger 40+. Another note - you'll notice Mammoth & Bear have the ramp the full width of the jump, Whistler and Creek have it partial width. Partial allows you to bail, full gives you more places to launch from if it gets beat up but no way to bail if you decide to at the last minute. It kind of depends on the trail but if there is a way AROUND the table I like the nearly full width ramp. The Creek one it would be dangerous with a full ramp because if you were on the left and wanted to bail - its woods.

I thought getting stuck in the snow on the way to the mountain was what made it memorable? And what made it so much better when you get there without a problem because sometimes you do get screwed. I went to Creek last year on one of those it rained then snowed days, and the hills going to it were crazy ice and I was glad I didn't have an SUV because it was prime roll over conditions. Made up there with a bit of sliding but didn't have to get out and push so it was worth it.

The jibzilla looked interesting I would want to hit that for sure. I was thinking of hitting it like a frontside lip on the slant wall but tail pressing like you had to on the slant box at MC two seasons ago. You'd be going along heelside edge downhill pressed on your tail and slide off at the end, that would look pretty sick. Kind of like you went up for a backside tree bonk and slid it across the face. Not sure if its doable and won't get a chance to try it this year, but thats what I was thinking of doing pre-season. That or go from the up, spin and land on the side like a hip. Not sure what else people are doing with it.

The GNU skis are in fact a reality and are Magne Traction. They are listed as the GNU NAS - "Narrow Ass Snowboard" High Country Sports in Livingston had 1 pair left when I left for school a few weeks ago. Obviously you can carry Burton + Skis. The Coalition & DFC is not allowed to be in a store that has skis - at least thats what our reps tell us. It is possible that some stores have been able to strike a deal - our store doesn't have much leverage because we are just 1 store. It is also possible the separate floors rule, all our stuff is on one floor because we only have one floor. The boards from Burton are the Se7en and the Uninc, the bindings/boots are just color schemes.

Papa you mean a step up like Northstar has been making for the pros the last few years. Actually Shawnee had a mini version last year that was pretty fun at the very end of hte season, it was like a 3-4 foot gap, maybe like 3 foot step up, about 20 feet of snow then a lip and a 4 foot drop. Mad fun, I would like to see one thats a bit bigger especially the end drop, with enough of a gap to prevent people from getting on top without using the jump.

that looks so nice. I can't get a perspective on that 3rd jump but it doesn't look all that big to me but still perfectly shaped. Looks like a 30 footer not a 50 but I wish I was healthy enough to hit it right now.

There are 2 kinds of season pass holders at creek - local skiers, and local park guys. The local skiers are really nice, the local park guys are a mixed bag. Then the influx of people from all over the NYC metro area - well it turns out to be like Manhattan, but generally the season pass holders are from Jersey and they are nicer.

Yea its true but who is to say the guys weren't kicking the idea of a channel gap around for the last 3 years before everyone split apart? Its not like JFBB is the first place to build one so whatever. I don't look at it as JFBB vs Mountain Creek the style of the places is similiar and it feeds in both directions. Why do you think Mountain Creek built a huge staircase this year?

Mostly as a record for next year, today is the day they opened up South for all customers - making today the first time this season all 4 mountains have been open. Everything is open with the exception of jumping jack, southern sojourn, and independance. Still very little in the main park, nothing in exhibition, no pipe, but moving in the right direction.

I'm not so sure about that, weren't we talking the other day about how they measure the summit of JF to be the lodge area but in reality east mountain is about 100 feet higher - get off the lift at the top and you go down about a hundred feet to the top. That would make it 700 feet and to me it feels like a more intense run than either challenge or razors - you might get more vert at Blue but I think that run is more interesting at JF. The question is will 1 good trail be more interesting after a day on it then a bunch of trails? I don't think so but it was sure fun early season this year when no one had anything comparable open.